Cleric healing vs. Chloromancer healing

Hello,
I've played RIFT before SL and I have cleric and mage both 50lvl.
So how is healing with them this days? I mean expert dungeons, raids (pvp too)? Is it still:
- chloro - great tank healing but if anything goes wrong it is hard to save your party (in dungeons)
- cleric - much more oh ****! buttons and your party is almost invincible if you know your skills well.
I prefer chloro because healing by doing damage is more fun imo but sometimes it felt helpless when something goes wrong.

Chloro's have plenty of oh crap buttons, but if you aren't paying attention just sitting there spamming void life, it doesn't take long to wipe a group. There are several dungeons with cleanse mechanics, some of which will 3 shot a dps. There are also times when it is very hard to find a damage target and you have to use direct heals not only on the tank but on the group.

As of right now Chloro's are the best healers for Tank or AoE cause of there smooth and steady healing. Clerics basically fill in the gaps where the chloro is weak...burst healing. Cleric also has a couple roles that every raid wants most of the time in a Defiler and a puri.

I have a lvl 60 Mage and a lvl 60 cleric and I enjoy healing on my mage a lot more.

Chloros and Clerics are both capable of all the ST and AoE healing that is necessary. Clerics have an easier time with burst damage in AoE (warden cooldowns) and ST (mitigation cooldowns), but Chloros bring steadier heals, generally higher DPS and Wild Growth which is very important for raid DPS, and unlike Clerics, Chloros do it all in one spec. As noted above Defiler and Puri are unique roles that are usually required for 20-man raids similar to a Bard and Archon/BM. You can get by without any Chloros but it's nonoptimal in all cases, and since tanks usually don't need more than a Chloro healing them with help from the Defiler and/or Puri, Sentinel is usually not needed.

This is all for 20 man raiding though -- in smaller groups you need to work with what you have. In 5 mans Sentinel, Purifier and Chloro are all very effective as solo healers.

And really, current encounter design favors chloros at the moment. If Trion is actually reading feedback threads, I fully expect them to place more fights in 2.4 raids that call for response to massive constant tank damage that a Cleric is better suited for.

And really, current encounter design favors chloros at the moment. If Trion is actually reading feedback threads, I fully expect them to place more fights in 2.4 raids that call for response to massive constant tank damage that a Cleric is better suited for.

I'm really hoping for a boss that requires a defiler, puri, chloro and sentinel to keep the tank alive. But the more raw damage you throw at the tank the more RNG tank deaths you get. It would have to do the equivalent of Crucia breaths for at least 20 second intervals, more often than once a minute.

Clerics would have you believe they're LEAGUES worse than chloros in healing. Not the case. Don't listen to anyone here. Level both (doesn't take that long) and form your own opinion.

Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

You don't have to be "LEAGUES worse" to be non-viable. If one healer can do the job while also providing non-trivial damage and another healer can't, the first will be preferred by 100% of raid leaders with functioning brain cells.

The problems I am seeing are specific instances where
1) Lots of movement is required at same time as burst or aoe heals.
Ex: Healing Manslaughter in Golum foundry last night was not working well with our group. Especially while Chloro targeted by the artillary barrage.

2) Aoe healing is needed when there are no damagable targets to get a Vile Spores aoe on and Flourish, bloom and essence surge are all on cooldown

3) The group is just not experienced enough and is taking too much unnecessary damage.

I still find many bosses that seem to need a support healer, but I'm finding I can main heal on my own way more than I used to after upgrading runes and so forth.

How to compensate?
I can see room for improvement in my Chloro healing that jives what what I have heard from pro raid Chloros.

It comes down to saving the right skills at the right time and knowing the fights.
There are times when other group members' failures to respect the mechanics will simply end in deaths.
There are situations where saving your aoe heals and your on-the-go heals could get you past what seems like an impossible hump. But there is so much variance from attempt to attempt sometimes its hard to know this for certain.
Blowing cleanses on things that are uncleansable or due to over-excited fingers definitely results in some unavaoidable deaths.

So basically a chloro = more skill to perfect/master while cleric takes less skill. I found cleric healing even in all 3 (except purifier...cannot get that one down to save my life) very easy to pick up & very easy to perform in.

While at level 51 when healing dungeons I'm still finding times when I could say "I should've done this, perhaps the tank wouldn't have died or dipped so low." Still a learning curve for me, but a well rewarded one as I'm loving the soul itself.

Overall IMO from what I've seen if you can play chloro well you'll be noticed. If you play cleric well you'll be noticed. As many have said chloro > cleric preferred in raids, but both have their spots. Cleric just seems to be more popular in general.